Every time, the fire alarm sounded on my ship, in my twenty odd years as a seafarer, I groaned. Fire drills can be quite painful & show up weaknesses in your training and infrastructure. On a ship, one prepares, relentlessly, for maybe, that one occasion, when there is a fire on board, where you have to do the right things right to save your ship & crew, from death and destruction.
As a young Captain, I got my turn, while my ship was undergoing a massive repair. Welding on an upper deck, caused, a fire to break out. Unfortunately, following Murphy’s law the fire, broke at 2 AM in a fairly inaccessible compartment. As the temperature rose (literally) I marveled, at how efficient & composed my men were. The rather complicated & dangerous Fire Fighting operation was carried out with a minimal amount of fuss & the fire was put out in about two hours.
A de brief on the event showed that all our FF equipment worked very well, instructions were understood & followed and collateral damage was minimal. The key to our success- Great preparation due to the right processes and training, leading to the right steps being taken as a reflex action. Practice does that for you.
Cut to the fire which broke out in the third floor of the Carlton Towers here at Bangalore, a couple of days ago, leaving a great many people dead. Everything which could go wrong did- Fire Exits were locked, Fire Fighting equipment malfunctioned, Building staff were untrained & confused, Electrical plans were apparently not updated or organized, people who worked in the many offices had no clue, as to how to react to a fire! Three persons died due to fatal injuries after jumping from the top floors of the building while six lost their lives due to severe burns and asphyxiation. Most builders flout fire safety requirements because it saves money and improves their bottom line, but, at what cost? Death! The death of innocents, as we have seen at the Carlton Towers. The apathy & negligence is appalling………………………….As far as I'm concerned professional negligence is criminal and must be treated as such, with extended jail terms dished out to those who flout safety norms.OSHA guidelines could be a standard, for having a framework, in issues of safety.
Rescue workers who reached the building had little idea as to how to react as quite likely, they would not have had access to building plans. The irony is that, collective memory, is so short lived in this country, that, this issue would rest on the back burner, till the next fire in unsafe buildings, kills more people.
Watch the fire engulf, the Navigating Bridge, of the largest container ship, Emma Maersk'
